One in five Americans reside in a jurisdiction where the adult use of cannabis is legal under state statute, and the majority of citizens reside someplace where the medical use of cannabis is legally authorized. Were the effects of these policies not preferable to those associated with criminal prohibition, or as dire as Mr. Nesser alleges, public and political support for marijuana policy reform would be rapidly declining. Instead, just the opposite is true. According to the latest nationwide Gallup poll, 64 percent of Americans now say that adult marijuana use ought to be legal.

Concerns regarding potential adverse effects on traffic safety have also not come to fruition. According to a 2017 study published in the American Journal of Public Health, “We found no significant association between recreational marijuana legalization in Washington and Colorado and subsequent changes in motor vehicle crash fatality rates in the first three years after recreational marijuana legalization." Authors further reported, “Changes in motor vehicle crash fatality rates for Washington and Colorado were not statistically different from those in similar states without recreational legalization.”

State lawmakers should welcome the opportunity to bring necessary and long overdue controls to the marijuana market. A pragmatic framework regulating adult use, but that continues to restrict marijuana use and access by young people, best reduces the risks associated with the plant's misuse. By contrast, advocating for the marijuana’s continued criminalization only compounds them.